Your original post made it sound as if you were pretty anti-Linux in the first place, so any legitimate concern of yours was at least partly masked by a doubt as to whether you really wanted a helpful reply. I think that explains your parent's emotional response at the end.
But then you seem to use quite a bit of emotion yourself, with this "tizzy" stuff and the "you guys all turn your noses up" comment. Who is "you guys," anyway? The people who respond with fervor when you claim that the software that they use every day is inferior? Seriously, try some tact next time and maybe you won't get flamed.
No matter what the details of the incident are, our (U.S.A.'s) response is what I was trying to call attention to. Our amazingly badly-engineered response has resulted in a HUGE chink in our armor, such that other nations need only mention Iraq and the discussion on American ethics and any sort of axis of evil is over.
Goodbye western society, it was nice to have you around. Seriously, we're trying to force some corporation to have an ethical code of conduct while our own government officials take bribes, shoplift, and sleep around? I mean, really?
Check out the sentiments we'll be facing at the feet of our enemes soon. We've got angry Russians tearing through one of our minion-states, like this:
You know what he's saying? He's saying "we're living like bums, they're living like kings, all this nice stuff, and look what happened to them"
That's just a shadow of things to come. Our government is going to be a weak joke compared to anybody with a moderately angry army and a united set of principles. In fact you can say it already happened, with 9/11, etc.
...and run Debian on it too! "Hold on honey, just one more minute...or so...and we'll be running XTerm. It'll be cool!"
On a more serious note, I do happen to love this. You can't expect a geek to know how to do a debian install *and* grasp things like interface design or usability, but nothing's stopping somebody with the skills from building on that foundation.
I'm really starting to dislike the lumping of all software packages into these convenient things called "distros". Knowing how a distro will change doesn't tell us anything about the desktop or server software landscape.
We have many open source apps finally getting to the point where mass adoption isn't far away (like Scribus, big changes recently). We have KDE apps about to be usable in Windows. We have traditional Gecko browsers like Epiphany moving to Webkit/KHTML. Google Summer of Code projects also bring important new features to many applications. So I think many new workflows will open up for the Linux desktop and Linux server, regardless of how distros change or the kernel changes.
Isn't that just how the market works? Microsoft can afford to be cheaper. Canonical is working against the fact that people don't have to *buy* Ubuntu in the first place, and community support is already available, source code is open, etc.
Monopolies seek to abolish competition. Free software simultaneously represents and abolishes absolute competition. All are free to contribute, but all are free to use what they like.
The existence of proprietary software does not deny the existence of open source software
First of all, proprietary software companies have been seeking ways to cut open source competitors out of the market for a long time now. This hurts consumers AND the free marketplace. A monopoly is bad, but a monopoly built on non-transparent software is even more dangerous. As our world's conversations migrate to the web, it is crucial that we protect the freedom of our information.
Also, I would add that "real freedom" is in the eye of the beholder. If I am free to trespass on your property and punch you in the face as much as I want, even though you don't think that's "optimal," then you don't really have much freedom. But maybe you view that as a perfectly satisfactory arrangement, who knows.
Pay attention, it's calculated. They have always wanted a forum, and things like this will get them that forum. Look at the length of this/. discussion for a clue...
This is how a small organization grabs attention when everyone else pays millions for the slightest chance at it...P.T. Barnum would be proud.
With so many negative replies on the subject, how about one that explores the positive side of this action by Defective by Design?
1) Apple is an obvious choice as a target. They are firmly grounded in the proprietary tradition, and though they advertise themselves as self-conscious, individuality-above-all, etc., they are only concerned about it at the external level.
2) The hype around iPhone naturally gives the story-hungry media the other side that they so desperately want to expose. This can only benefit consumers.
3) All the "it's just a phone" people who think the iPhone rush is ridiculous will happily consider other sides to the story.
4) Steve Jobs is the largest Disney shareholder. Therefore Apple is the new face of the old media monopoly, simply put.
5) Freedom in a digital world IS digital freedom (paraphrasing Moglen). That means providing open formats and open source, which were launched for the benefit of mankind.
6) Far too many techies have been singing Apple's praises, but what they can't see is 10 years down the road. Steve Jobs will no longer be running things (most likely due to his health). Quality will drop. And every proprietary string we allowed Apple to thread in 2008 will become a tangle of rope that binds the consumer (in reality a digital citizen) to inferior Apple products.
7) Welcome to 2018, when Apple are recognized as the New Microsoft.
I know this is being considered by standards committees, but I was wondering if there's a national security angle to this? Could you slip anything subversive into a standard? I mean, from the defense angle I can see dependence on a U.S. corporation as a huge deal, but other than that...?
I can see a future where English-speaking users struggle through Chinese software that's badly translated but free and effective nonetheless...
Sweet, modded to 5, Interesting for a work of fiction involving a mythical Fiero with a back seat. Hey, if you guys want, I got more where this stuff came from. There was one time, back in the first Desert Storm, when my Republican Guard buddies and I...well, another day maybe.
Actually, back in my sophomore year in college, my roommates and I built a liquid-metal-cooled 6-node cluster into the back seat of an old Fiero.
The cool thing was, power was so cheap (via government subsidies called "grants") that we eventually upgraded the cluster to run a realtime terrain modeling system that was supposed to identify a path through a network of roads that allowed for the highest average speed, given speed limits and road lengths. The terrain modeling part would determine a way to maximize the time spent going downhill.
DARPA initially supported us, and were going to upgrade our status, give us clearances, etc. but they eventually killed our funding after Ford found out we were using a Fiero and complained about our physical safety while operating the system. But man, DARPA know of some *way* cool ghost towns and low-traffic road networks.
The preceding is a work of fiction written by an easily-distracted procrastinator in a severe time crunch
Lately it's become popular for Linux users and devs to profess their love and devotion for the Linux Hater. But I don't think they really get it. The author just propagates the same old "grandma can't use it" and "too much choice" and "developers should focus instead on XYZ" crap that you found on usenet years ago.
The message is not simply, "Linux needs to improve," but rather "Linux will never be good enough."
Most experienced Linux users probably have it in them to respond to inane trolls with precision and objectivity, but when a troll with a sense of humor, good writing skills, and some domain experience comes along, everybody cowers and plays along. Hey, the popular guy is here, everybody play cool.
Too many Linux users are caught between their love for straightforwardness and cutting-edge technology on the one hand and their lust for popularity and respect on the other. Linux Hater is not here to make you laugh. He's not secretly using Linux and enjoying it. He's the guy who sold you out for cooler friends in tenth grade, idiots.
When I bought my first Linux-preinstalled laptop last year, I felt like I was really discovering how great computing can be again, especially for people who are interested in computers. So it saddened me to find that the Netflix in-browser service requires a Windows machine. I still use it on occasion with an older computer, but I hope that this technology will soon be truly cross-platform like many other modern web services have become.
We bought the Netflix Roku player and have been very happy with it; we've got 135 films in our instant queue and we're glad we don't have to watch normal college-freshman-level TV (i.e. crass humor, actually aimed at 12-year olds) or hang out at our local seedy video store with the nasty carpet smell for the same old catalog.
Also, occasionally I'll blurt out something terribly nerdy about how the Roku player runs Linux and my wife will totally ignore it. This always helps bring me back down to earth for a moment.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.marccarson.com/images/slashdot-mars-panorama.jpg
There you go...491KB.
...no lawnmower engine, no bicycle brakes, no revolving chair. What is going on, editors?
Your original post made it sound as if you were pretty anti-Linux in the first place, so any legitimate concern of yours was at least partly masked by a doubt as to whether you really wanted a helpful reply. I think that explains your parent's emotional response at the end.
But then you seem to use quite a bit of emotion yourself, with this "tizzy" stuff and the "you guys all turn your noses up" comment. Who is "you guys," anyway? The people who respond with fervor when you claim that the software that they use every day is inferior? Seriously, try some tact next time and maybe you won't get flamed.
No matter what the details of the incident are, our (U.S.A.'s) response is what I was trying to call attention to. Our amazingly badly-engineered response has resulted in a HUGE chink in our armor, such that other nations need only mention Iraq and the discussion on American ethics and any sort of axis of evil is over.
Goodbye western society, it was nice to have you around. Seriously, we're trying to force some corporation to have an ethical code of conduct while our own government officials take bribes, shoplift, and sleep around? I mean, really?
Check out the sentiments we'll be facing at the feet of our enemes soon. We've got angry Russians tearing through one of our minion-states, like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dy1b34Ehdg
You know what he's saying? He's saying "we're living like bums, they're living like kings, all this nice stuff, and look what happened to them"
That's just a shadow of things to come. Our government is going to be a weak joke compared to anybody with a moderately angry army and a united set of principles. In fact you can say it already happened, with 9/11, etc.
Sigh. (Sorry for the rant)
Now you too can have a phone with the most hilarious startup sequence ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c0eVdj4E7w
...and run Debian on it too! "Hold on honey, just one more minute...or so...and we'll be running XTerm. It'll be cool!"
On a more serious note, I do happen to love this. You can't expect a geek to know how to do a debian install *and* grasp things like interface design or usability, but nothing's stopping somebody with the skills from building on that foundation.
Yep, I do the same thing, signing clients up for Google services, and I get their captchas right about once every three or four tries. :-(
For example?
I'm really starting to dislike the lumping of all software packages into these convenient things called "distros". Knowing how a distro will change doesn't tell us anything about the desktop or server software landscape.
We have many open source apps finally getting to the point where mass adoption isn't far away (like Scribus, big changes recently). We have KDE apps about to be usable in Windows. We have traditional Gecko browsers like Epiphany moving to Webkit/KHTML. Google Summer of Code projects also bring important new features to many applications. So I think many new workflows will open up for the Linux desktop and Linux server, regardless of how distros change or the kernel changes.
Dude, when the Georgian President realizes that he can't retrieve all of his data from the Google cloud, he's going to be so P.O.'d.
I'm shutting down my blog about the finer points of the GNU GPL in protest of Mr. Patry's shutting down of his blog about copyright.
I'm sorry it had to come to this. And to all my readers: I WONT be back.
LOL. Why you wouldn't log in to post that is a mystery to me.
Isn't that just how the market works? Microsoft can afford to be cheaper. Canonical is working against the fact that people don't have to *buy* Ubuntu in the first place, and community support is already available, source code is open, etc.
Monopolies seek to abolish competition. Free software simultaneously represents and abolishes absolute competition. All are free to contribute, but all are free to use what they like.
First of all, proprietary software companies have been seeking ways to cut open source competitors out of the market for a long time now. This hurts consumers AND the free marketplace. A monopoly is bad, but a monopoly built on non-transparent software is even more dangerous. As our world's conversations migrate to the web, it is crucial that we protect the freedom of our information.
Also, I would add that "real freedom" is in the eye of the beholder. If I am free to trespass on your property and punch you in the face as much as I want, even though you don't think that's "optimal," then you don't really have much freedom. But maybe you view that as a perfectly satisfactory arrangement, who knows.
Pay attention, it's calculated. They have always wanted a forum, and things like this will get them that forum. Look at the length of this /. discussion for a clue...
This is how a small organization grabs attention when everyone else pays millions for the slightest chance at it...P.T. Barnum would be proud.
I think it's a brilliant move, even assuming nobody carries through with the questioning.
The FSF are presenting an exacerbated scenario, which is just disconcerting enough to create space inside your head for this story to play out.
Before you read this story, you may not have had an opinion. After you read it, you are pushed further into the conversation.
People are creative; when you give them a scenario that seems to run against the grain, they engage it with fervor.
With so many negative replies on the subject, how about one that explores the positive side of this action by Defective by Design?
1) Apple is an obvious choice as a target. They are firmly grounded in the proprietary tradition, and though they advertise themselves as self-conscious, individuality-above-all, etc., they are only concerned about it at the external level.
2) The hype around iPhone naturally gives the story-hungry media the other side that they so desperately want to expose. This can only benefit consumers.
3) All the "it's just a phone" people who think the iPhone rush is ridiculous will happily consider other sides to the story.
4) Steve Jobs is the largest Disney shareholder. Therefore Apple is the new face of the old media monopoly, simply put.
5) Freedom in a digital world IS digital freedom (paraphrasing Moglen). That means providing open formats and open source, which were launched for the benefit of mankind.
6) Far too many techies have been singing Apple's praises, but what they can't see is 10 years down the road. Steve Jobs will no longer be running things (most likely due to his health). Quality will drop. And every proprietary string we allowed Apple to thread in 2008 will become a tangle of rope that binds the consumer (in reality a digital citizen) to inferior Apple products.
7) Welcome to 2018, when Apple are recognized as the New Microsoft.
I know this is being considered by standards committees, but I was wondering if there's a national security angle to this? Could you slip anything subversive into a standard? I mean, from the defense angle I can see dependence on a U.S. corporation as a huge deal, but other than that...?
I can see a future where English-speaking users struggle through Chinese software that's badly translated but free and effective nonetheless...
Sweet, modded to 5, Interesting for a work of fiction involving a mythical Fiero with a back seat. Hey, if you guys want, I got more where this stuff came from. There was one time, back in the first Desert Storm, when my Republican Guard buddies and I...well, another day maybe.
Right, and it's just like Ford to complain about GM getting special treatment...anyway, nevermind, not a big deal :D
Did I say seat? I meant "shelf." ;-)
Actually, back in my sophomore year in college, my roommates and I built a liquid-metal-cooled 6-node cluster into the back seat of an old Fiero.
The cool thing was, power was so cheap (via government subsidies called "grants") that we eventually upgraded the cluster to run a realtime terrain modeling system that was supposed to identify a path through a network of roads that allowed for the highest average speed, given speed limits and road lengths. The terrain modeling part would determine a way to maximize the time spent going downhill.
DARPA initially supported us, and were going to upgrade our status, give us clearances, etc. but they eventually killed our funding after Ford found out we were using a Fiero and complained about our physical safety while operating the system. But man, DARPA know of some *way* cool ghost towns and low-traffic road networks.
The preceding is a work of fiction written by an easily-distracted procrastinator in a severe time crunch
Lately it's become popular for Linux users and devs to profess their love and devotion for the Linux Hater. But I don't think they really get it. The author just propagates the same old "grandma can't use it" and "too much choice" and "developers should focus instead on XYZ" crap that you found on usenet years ago.
The message is not simply, "Linux needs to improve," but rather "Linux will never be good enough."
Most experienced Linux users probably have it in them to respond to inane trolls with precision and objectivity, but when a troll with a sense of humor, good writing skills, and some domain experience comes along, everybody cowers and plays along. Hey, the popular guy is here, everybody play cool.
Too many Linux users are caught between their love for straightforwardness and cutting-edge technology on the one hand and their lust for popularity and respect on the other. Linux Hater is not here to make you laugh. He's not secretly using Linux and enjoying it. He's the guy who sold you out for cooler friends in tenth grade, idiots.
When I bought my first Linux-preinstalled laptop last year, I felt like I was really discovering how great computing can be again, especially for people who are interested in computers. So it saddened me to find that the Netflix in-browser service requires a Windows machine. I still use it on occasion with an older computer, but I hope that this technology will soon be truly cross-platform like many other modern web services have become.
We bought the Netflix Roku player and have been very happy with it; we've got 135 films in our instant queue and we're glad we don't have to watch normal college-freshman-level TV (i.e. crass humor, actually aimed at 12-year olds) or hang out at our local seedy video store with the nasty carpet smell for the same old catalog.
Also, occasionally I'll blurt out something terribly nerdy about how the Roku player runs Linux and my wife will totally ignore it. This always helps bring me back down to earth for a moment.